Kobalt Works

Eisa Jocson

Eisa Jocson is a contemporary choreographer and dancer from the Philippines. Trained as a visual artist, with a background in ballet, she won her first pole-dancing competition in Manila in 2010, and started pole ‘tagging’ and other public interventions in Manhattan and various cities.

Under successive residencies in Belgium, Eisa developed an artistic praxis that questions the stereotype and context of the female pole dancer. Her solo Death of the Pole Dancer toured extensively around Europe.

Eisa then trained in ‘macho dancing’, a popular night-club entertainment form, and premiered Macho Dancers in spring 2013 in Brussels. This solo creation toured across Europe as well.

From pole to macho dancing, Eisa investigates the labour and representations of the dancing body in the service industry and exposes gender formation, seduction politics, and Filipino social mobility. Her latest work HOST uncovers the world of ‘Japayuki’ – the foreign entertainers hired from the Philippines to perform for the pleasure of ‘salary-men’ in clubs throughout Japan.